Meeting Highlights February 12, 2015

Members Present:  Andrew, Bob, Jackie, Judy, Luneil, Patty, Ruthann, Suzy

Judy will contact IWC about reserving a room at the Lake County Library for our meetings.

Luneil won the raffle for the Text Aloud3 (convert your text to speech software app). She looks forward to using it and will report her experience to the group at a future meeting.

Patty brought in miniature hats and perfume bottles that she has been working on to help her visualize the millinery shop from her novel. She plans to create a two story shop complete with a hat work room and apartment on the upper level. Suzy and other members reassured her that a lot of authors sketch floor plans, draw maps, and make recreations for reference.

Patty read “The Millinery Shop of Paris”, Chapter 2 in Modiste De Paris. Members suggested she keep the chapter, which describes the shop in vivid detail, as author notes for reference. Members also advised her to include specific details throughout the upcoming chapters so they are not just concentrated in one place.

Judy read Chapter 3 “Friends” in Emma and Guenevere. Aunt Anne is shocked to discover Emma has not only met the princess but considers her a friend.

Bob read his recently revised first chapter, entitled “Magic”, about Cody and his dog Lucy and the mysterious dog house.

Suzy brought in the book Screen-Smart Parenting by Jodi Gold, MD. In the book Gold evaluates the benefits and effects of technology on children of different ages. Suzy learned e-books need to be kept simple. Further, buttons and animations distract children and take away from the reading and learning experience.

Suzy created a picture book for her grandson though Ibooks. She used pictures from Killian’s early years to ease him into the transition of becoming a big brother next month.

Luneil handed out an outline of ideas she has been working on for her Barty the Clumsy Vampire book. Members gave additional suggestions.

Jackie passed out writing handouts and read her poem “Snow Day”.

Judy has secured a guest speaker for our next meeting. Mari Barnes is a member of Indiana Writers’ Consortium and has her own publishing company.

MHW would like to thank Panera Bread for allowing us to hold our February meeting there. 

Members decided another location will be needed when we have special events including guest speaker engagements and will check on availability.

Next meeting is March 12, 2015. The place is to be determined.

JSH

Christmas Party / Meeting Highlights 12-11-14

Members Present:   Andrew, Bernardo, Bob, Jackie, Judy, Luneil, Pam, Sharon, Suzy

Suzy demonstrates how to navigate picture e-books on her iPad

Members decided to lower the annual dues to $10. 2015 dues will be due in January. Make checks payable to Judy Whitcomb. A year end statement will be available at the next meeting.

Judy passed around a survey / information sheet. She will send it electronically so members can submit answers to her easily. It asks about what members are writing right now and what genres they are interested in. We are also asking for ideas about future meeting topics and guest speakers. Judy put together a book list of our lending library.

Luneil knows a writer that is interested in our group. Jackie will get her email address and contact her.

Judy passed out an outline about a webinar she participated in entitled Easy Picture Books: Top Strategies to Create Passive Income with Kindle Picture Books. The webinar included information on promoting yourself and using pseudonym names (which is important if you plan to write across several genres). The Guardian and a Flavorwire article both reported picture books and young adult novels sales have increased significantly over the past few years. Members discussed ipiccy.com which is a free web based tool for photo editing and looked over a handout from writeforkids.org that breaks down different types of books for children based on age and ability.

Here is a link which further explains book formats: http://www.summeredward.com/2013/04/types-of-childrens-books-formats.html

Bob read the first chapter in his latest story geared toward children ages 7-10. Cody discovers something mysterious in the doghouse out back.

Bernardo read the next chapter in his adventure book. The action is now taking place in the upside-down forest.

Luneil read Barty the Clumsy Vampire. She wrote it years ago but has since added several more details to the story as well as more dialogue and conflict. Members encouraged her to keep writing and were eager to offer suggestions.

Suzy read Getting Ready for Christmas at Mrs. Walters. Mrs. Walters begins to come to terms with the real meaning of Christmas and being on her own.

Pam and Judy passed out hand-made stocking ornaments and candy; what a Merry Christmas!

Next Meeting is January 8th, at Panera Bread in Merrillville, IN at 6:30 p.m.

Happy New Year!

JSH

Meeting Highlights - November 13

Members Present:  Andrew, Bob, Jackie, Judy, Luneil, Suzy

Guests:  Ruthann Graczyk, Pat Yackanich

Members discussed where to gather for the next meeting/Christmas party. Ruthanne will make some calls.

 

Andrew read four poems: Three Pots, The Pot of Beauty, The Pot Suitable for Duty, and The Little Pot. He had done a lot of editing and revising over the past few months. Members gave a few suggestions on rhythm but felt he had done a nice job overall with the descriptions and overall message he was trying to convey.

Bob reported that he uses http://editminion.com to check for weak words, clichés, and passive voice.

 

Patty read Chapter 1 The Foreboding of the Silver Bells. The story takes place in 1900’s Paris, France and is a middle grade novel. Pat has been working on it for over a year and has completed nine chapters. Members are anxious to hear more.

Judy read her revised first chapter of Emma and Guenever. She has broken up some of Emma’s dialogue by including partial interjections from Guenever but has been able to maintain Emma’s energetic spirit in her writing. Judy also read Chapter 2 Gathering Eggs and Feathers.

 

Suzy read Zilla Plants a Garden from The Adventures of a Garden Gnome. Zilla gets help and inspiration from Chummy, Purr, and the house children.

Bob read Book Three – Hayley the Hawk from The Adventures of Rugs. Riley and Rugs make judgments on the hawk before they know anything about her.

Jackie will gather some handouts from past meetings to share with Pat.

 

Luneil, Jackie, Judy, Andrew, Suzy, and Bob plan on attending the Write-On Hoosier Christmas Banquet on December 3^rd.

Next Meeting:  Thursday, December 11^th. Place is to be determined.

 

JSH

Meeting Minutes - October 9, 2014

Members Present: Bob, Jackie, Judy, Luneil, Suzy

Judy gave members (and some young people J) handouts on a contest for writers age 30 and below.

Bob read Adventures of Rugs – Book II. He reported that he inserted pictures and page breaks in his first book to get a better feel of the layout and design. He also talked about attending Blank Slate Writers meetings and submitting for their annual publication.

Jackie will forward information on the Chicago Writer’s Conference. She encourages members to get on their mailing list so they will be notified personally of upcoming local events.

Jackie, Judy, and Suzy attended the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Conference on October 4 in Rensselaer, IN. The conference was on writing non-fiction. An editor and a few authors offered  information on what editors look for, freelance writing, and research, then also shared their personal stories and advice. Jackie brought the book The House that George built by Suzanne Slade (one of the presenters).

Suxy read Lex’s Halloween, a short story about a sinister gargoyle.

Judy read Little Red Riding Hood Edited (an old favorite).

Jackie reported her poem All Washed Up is a finalist in the Indiana Bicentennial Poetry book contest due out in 2016. All counties in Indiana held contests; the winning poem from each county will be included in the book.

Members discussed writing for children online courses. Suzy has completed seven, while Bob has done two. Watch for discounts and Groupons.

Members talked with high school students Tyler and Roman about their group Northwest Indiana Youth Authors. They were planning an Open Mic Event at the Sip Coffee House on October 10^th, and plan to host many other local events.

Judy challenged members to post two personal blog entries by next meeting.

Next Meeting November 13, 2014

JSH

Meeting Minutes 9-11-14

Members: Luneil, Bob, Suzy, Jackie

Guest: Ruthann

Jackie reported that the MHW blog has had over 6,800 page hits since the first post in February 2010.

Bob has made a list of 27 publishers that will accept unsolicited manuscripts. Of those, half will accept stories for children. He will share the list after completing a little more research.  Bob found a new publishing company based in Indiana. The Kids at Heart Publishing LLC link follows: http://www.kidsatheartpublishing.com/ . As part of the research and preparation phase of his new book series, Bob has been reviewing level 2 reading books and has talked to an illustrator.

Suzy talked about KDP Kids (Kindle Direct Publishing). https://kdp.amazon.com/kids .

Bob read The Adventures of Rugs, Book 1 Slow Down, Rugs! In this first book of the series, Riley and Allie help Rugs help himself out of a scary situation. Both Riley and Allie are main characters and will appear in subsequent books.

Luneil read a story she wrote for a contest.  Just a Look details the day Luneil’s daughter had a massive stroke, the surgeon that saved her life, and the challenges they all faced.

Suzy read Mrs. Walters and the Gents. Fellow MHW members are featured in her fantasy story which was inspired by true events at the previous meeting.

MHW is always looking for new members. The Sip Coffee House is an ideal place to dine, hang out, and meet new people; Get Inspired! Two young adults (one patron and our server, Tyler) talked with us about MHW and other writer’s groups in the region. We hope they will continue writing and consider joining one or more of the groups for support, critique, and/or learning opportunities. There is a wealth of information out there!

Looking for ways to improve your writing? Check out thesaurus.com for Word of the Day, Vocab Boosters and more: http://www.thesaurus.com/

JSH

Meeting Highlights August 14, 2014

Members Present: Jackie, Judy, Luneil, Suzy

Guest: Bob M.

Suzy reported Paul Henry’s Art Gallery will host a reading event on the second Wednesday of every month starting in January. The gallery is located right next to the Indiana Writers’ Consortium’s new office/conference space. Judy and Jackie visited both this past summer. Janine and Julie from IWC are working to secure readers for the monthly event at the gallery which also has regular studio hours and acoustic jam nights as well. Check it out on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paul-Henrys-Art-Gallery/184404196644

Suzy attended the Midwest Writers Conference at Ball State in July. She went all three days and gathered a lot of material and information. She was very excited about the opportunity to network with authors and agents and see their latest marketing tools. Suzy also brought in information on the October 4^th SCBWI event in Rensselaer, IN. The Indiana Writers’ Consortium Conference will be held October 11^th from 1 to 10 pm in Merrillville. A few members hope to attend both events. See our upcoming events page for links.

Judy and Bob would like to ask fellow IWC member Mark Ailes to be a guest speaker for one of our upcoming meetings. He is the author of several since fiction, fantasy, and horror novels as well as an award winning poet.  http://markcuscoailes.weebly.com/

Luneil read I Can’t Like That, a short story about a little girl’s unhappiness about her lunch choices.

Bob discussed his next project, The Adventures of Rugs, which is a picture book series. He introduced his cast of characters and explained how accepting one’s differences is the theme in each.

Jackie and Judy brought in dummy books and briefly discussed the submission process as well as self-publishing. Jackie read two poems. The first one is in the draft stage and includes prompts for children to design their own backpack. The second one, which she plans to submit to magazines, is about a puppy that chews up everything in the house.

Judy read Coming Home, a memoir type short story with an unexpected ending.

JSH

Meeting Highlights for July 10, 2014

In attendance: Andrew, Pam Gonzalez, Bernardo Gonzalez, Judy

Personal Sharing: Andrew shared that he got a new apartment. Pam and Bernardo shared they just celebrated 7 years of marriage on July 7th.

Business:  Judy discussed a course she is taking that Andrew had shared with the group via email. The course was offered on Groupon and is called "Write Story Books for Children". Judy showed us the course using her laptop and heartily recommends it. The course is regularly offered for $500 but through Groupon, it was being offered for $19.95. The website address of the course is www.writestorybooksforchildren.com.

Pam passed around a handout that was an article about the pros for authors utilizing Google+ to promote themselves and their books.

Judy suggested we check our emails, as she has been sending us regular updates.

Andrew read two poems he's written: "Three Pots" and "The Pot of Beauty". He also did some illustration work to go with the poems.

Bernardo read more of "Red & Fred" which lead to a group discussion about using description in writing.

The group had a discussion about not force-rhyming poems when writing.

The group ended the meeting shortly after 8:00 p.m. with several members saying they were going to look again at the course "Write Story Books for Children".

PG